Richmond (9/17/2014)

Staying with the Richmond theme (yes I am not traveling today, just commuting); one of my favorite lunch-time walks is along the James River.  It is wonderful to see the powerful river going over what we call the fault line.  The fault line is the transition zone between what we call the Piedmont and the Coastal Plane.  Interestingly enough, it is also where a lot of the major industrial cities are on the east coast.  I can imagine cities like Columbia, SC; Rocky Mount, NC; Petersburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg in Virginia; and last but not least Washington, DC (or at least slightly west of DC).

The advantage of being located near the fault line is cheep energy.  In Richmond the river drops more than 100 feet, and enterprising individuals figured out how to harness that energy.  They built canals to keep the water high and then make it drop through water wheels etc in order to generate energy.  At the same time the canals allowed boat traffic further inland through a lock system.

Historic features abound along the river and I just took this picture to juxtapose the old and the modern.  The cobble stones remind me of my home country (the Netherlands or Holland); as a biker, I have to think the famous race from Paris to Roubaix, a bike race over cobbles like this.  You can see the footprint of an older building and in the background of the picture you have a very modern building and the more conventional building of Dominion Energy.  Nice to see this contrast between old and new.  I really like new, very modern looking buildings, but the old is attractive as well.

Richmond (2/19/2014)

Today I took a walk in the canal street park in Richmond.  Crazy, but the information on my phone says it is a rainy day, boy are they wrong.  It was nice and sunny with temperatures finally at a decent level, although there are still a few heaps of dirty snow visible in town.

Instead of going my usual left, I went right for a change, towards the Civil War Center.  Walking back along the river there is a small causeway from where you can look back on town from above the James River, from where this picture of downtown is taken.  In front of course is the James River, then the CSX line and the big building is the Federal Bank Building.  The cause way is neat, it has all kinds of quotes from civil war soldiers on it and it gives you an interesting flavor.   It is amazing how big the Civil War is in the psyche of this state; but then as a foreigner I should understand that because we still talk about the 2^nd World War.

As you can see, the James is fairly full at the moment; it has been a cold and relatively wet winter here.  I think a lot of us will be very happy when spring comes around.  Just looking at my own yard, we usually have daffodils by now.  The first ones are usually flowering by early January.  At the moment none of them are even close to breaking bud.  Today was a fun teaser, but it felt oh so nice. 

Richmon (9/3/2013)

Richmond actually has/had a canal flowing through it.  This canal was used for power production and for boat traffic up the James over the falls.  Just an interesting picture I took on the 3rd of September of one of the buildings on the canal.